Blog for the RepRap project at www.reprap.org - a project to create an open-source self-copying 3D printer. To get all the early posts on this blog with all the images as a single PDF visit this page.

Sunday, August 13, 2006

Rack and Pinion...

I converted Kiplinger's maths to code and tested them. His pinion gear routine seems to be nothing more than an involute profile gear like we already have. Mind, the Swedish approach seems more robust than Kiplinger's. His routine for generating rack gear strips is trivial and appears to be very robust. I've got that going in a VB.NET test programme and will sort out the problems, such as they are, in it before shifting it over to a Java script that will work in Art of Illusion. Most of the "problems" are making sure that the routine generates a proper loop of line segments and resolving a terms difference between the input data for the Swedish involute profile gear programme and the rack programme. I don't think that is going to be any big deal.

Here is a sample rack I generated with the VB.NET code prototype routine.

It is a 14.5 degree pitch angle rack.

Just for variety here is a 20 degree angle rack. Pitch angles of 14.5 and 20 degrees are pretty much the industry standard for this kind of gear technology.